Contraceptive app "Natural Cycles" is being blamed for 37 unwanted pregnancies
Birth control apps may be convenient but they're not proven to be more effective than any other method of contraception.
Not convinced? Cut to Natural Cycles, a birth control app that's currently being blamed for 37 unwanted pregnancies, according to Swedish publication SVT.
Natural Cycles — which once claimed to be "the only approved contraceptive app out there" — appealed to users through confident branding, touting the lack of side effects that pills and IUDs can cause. And while that sounds nice, with no hormonal regulations, the app's potential for success is a bit dubious.
According to reports, nearly 40 women who used the app visited Södersjukhuset hospital in Stockholm to get abortions from September 2017 to the end of the year. The hospital has since reported the app to the Medical Products Agency (MPA) in Sweden.
Designed by Elina Berglund and Raoul Scherwitzl, a married team of physicists, the app uses an algorithm to review personal information such as body temperature and track body patterns over time to eventually be able to predict fertility periods. The idea is that couples looking to avoid pregnancy should steer clear of sex when the app alerts them of their fertile periods, though clearly the method is not foolproof.
In a statement to Mashable, Natural Cycles said the risk of pregnancy associated with the app is clear and communicated to users. Typically, Natural Cycles claims to be 93 percent effective.
"No contraception is 100% effective, and unwanted pregnancies is an unfortunate risk with any contraception," the statement read. "Our studies have repeatedly shown that our app provides a high level of effectiveness similar to other methods."
Natural Cycles also confirmed they had not yet received any information from Södersjukhuset hospital, but said they are currently in touch with the MPA and is working to respond to individual cases.
How culpable are they?
Despite the backlash stemming from reports of 37 unwanted pregnancies, Natural Cycles still claims that the app is very effective.
"We’d like to reassure the medical community and the public that Natural Cycles is an effective, clinically proven, form of contraception, which hundreds of thousands of women worldwide trust as their birth control to prevent or plan a pregnancy," the company said in a statement.
In fact, Natural Cycles didn't find the 37 unwanted pregnancies all that shocking.
"At first sight, the numbers mentioned in the media are not surprising given the popularity of the app and in line with our efficacy rates," the company said. "As our user base increases, so will the amount of unintended pregnancies coming from Natural Cycles app users, which is an inevitable reality." The app currently has almost 700,000 users worldwide.
While the app doesn’t have a worse track record than using the natural method with no app, much of the problem lies in Natural Cycles claiming to be as or more effective than other brith control methods.
Even so, while women using the app have unintentionally become pregnant, Natural Cycles does give warning in its Terms for Use, in which readers must agree to the following before registering:
You use the Services and the Products at your sole risk.
The Services does not through any directly action perform contraception or conception, but rather informs you about how to act.
You understand and agree to that Natural Cycles in no way guarantees the accuracy of the Products’ measurement outputs.
You understand that the accuracy of the information provided by the Services may depend on Individual circumstances which cannot be known or foreseen by Natural Cycles, and that such information may not be applicable and/or may have become outdated as result of recent developments.
Though the fertility app has been approved by German testing organization Tüv Süd and is CE marked, like all methods, a risk is clear. If you really want to avoid pregnancy, consult a physician and consider an IUD or other more tried and true birth control methods.
Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.
